“The Nun” is the fifth movie in “The Conjuring” movie series, though its events occur prior to those that happened in the second film.
The title gives the movie’s main antagonist away as the plot follows the same demonic nun named Valak from “The Conjuring 2” film, except now the audience is given the origin place of Valak.
When trailers and teasers for the movie were released to the public, they were scary and also intriguing as a film concept. One of the teasers that was featured on YouTube was seven seconds in length showing a black screen with the volume being turned down on your device.
The intention of the ad was for the viewer to turn their volume up so that a loud jumpscare of the nun was presented, scaring the viewer. This ad was eventually removed after many complaints about it being too frightening for viewers.
All of this was a good sign for the potential horror levels of the film, unfortunately it did not live up to the expectations given by the trailers.
The beginning of the movie had the most suspense, keeping the audience on the edge if their seat awaiting the first appearance of Valak. Throughout the movie the small jumpscares became predictable — the door opens by itself, the nun is at the end of the hallway and there is a figure outlined in the window. While the film had its share of predictable horror elements, there were moments that did surprise the viewing audience, though not all scared them.
There was comic relief throughout the movie that came in the form of a character and gave you a break up between suspenseful sequences. Because of this any scene that was supposed to be scary became comical instead because of the character’s presence. It downplayed the horror in the movie when it was not meant to.
Along the lines of connecting “The Nun” to the rest of “The Conjuring” films, besides the presence of the nun there was not a big showing of the original characters from the series. Two brief showings of scenes from previous movies was the most connection to the characters of Ed and Lorraine Warren.
The ending of the film connects a character to the first movie in the series and gives context as to their existence. This may warrant a sequel explaining that path of possession.
Overall “The Nun” is a suspenseful horror film with some predictable elements. If you’re not sure about going to see it, I would say you could pass on it without missing out on much.
Tiffani Watteyne is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted by email at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @tiffanirosew.
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